Earth contacting devices, such as drill bits, drill collars, stabilizers, and the like, and agricultural implements, such as threshers, reapers and the like include wear or contact surfaces exposed to erosive wear due to contact with geological materials including rock formations and crops to be harvested, respectively, and require frequent replacement and/or techniques to refurbish the contacting surface thereof. Stabilizers utilized for improving down-hole conditions during well drilling are positioned in the drill-string proximate the drill bit. Replacement of a stabilizer necessitates the withdrawal and repositioning of the drill-string, generally a daily routine, a time-consuming and costly protocol with concomitant loss in bore hole depth production.
Stabilizers have been manufactured with costly cemented tungsten carbide compacts with such types of stabilizers suffering from the problem of bit loss due to matrix erosion. Additionally, such tungsten carbide compact containing stabilizers do not provide for a continuous contact surface thereby reducing stabilizer efficaciousness.